What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[Ruldra]

So if it's neither clear time nor remaining life what determines the score in this game?

Your score is related to the amount of damage you take in a fight. The more you get hit, the less points you get from it. So for maximum score you need to no-miss the whole game - which I presume is what the top 2 guys accomplished.

I probably COULD no-miss the whole game with some more practice, but I really don't think I can pull off a sub-20 minute clear again, and if I get a better score my time record will be deleted. So that's my final score submission.

[Ed Oscuro]

Still playing Armored Core [PS1].

Managed to fuck up a bunch, ended up getting a Human Plus upgrade [much improved radar], sold a part I still had gotten in a mission that was left over to get an amazing generator so I could boost like a motherfucker, and now I'm ages further along. Oh, and a machine gun.

Get all the Human+ upgrades! The generator...yeah, I think I know the one you're talking about, it has higher total output than the hidden golden generator, right? I use the one from the store for that reason.

[null1024]

Still playing Armored Core [PS1].

Managed to fuck up a bunch, ended up getting a Human Plus upgrade [much improved radar], sold a part I still had gotten in a mission that was left over to get an amazing generator so I could boost like a motherfucker, and now I'm ages further along. Oh, and a machine gun.

Get all the Human+ upgrades! The generator...yeah, I think I know the one you're talking about, it has higher total output than the hidden golden generator, right? I use the one from the store for that reason.

I ended up with a second [after clearing a mission and spending my whole pay and then some in ammo, that was silly but I just accepted it and got back to where I was ]. Apparently I have the blade wave, and I had no idea how I was triggering it.

And the Moonlight blade with blade wave is excessive as hell, jeeeeeez.

I dunno about the generator. I'd need to fire the game up right now to check the model. It charges pretty quick and lasts a fair bit. Delightful.

[jasoncslaughter]

Child Of Eden. What. The. Fuck?

Definitely an unusual one, and maybe the only reasonably good use of the Kinnect to date (there are probably others, but I gave up pretty quickly). Still, though, I ended up using the controller after giving myself tennis elbow from using the lock-on shot. Weird, but enjoyable (to me, anyway).

[Ed Oscuro]

Still playing Armored Core [PS1].

Managed to fuck up a bunch, ended up getting a Human Plus upgrade [much improved radar], sold a part I still had gotten in a mission that was left over to get an amazing generator so I could boost like a motherfucker, and now I'm ages further along. Oh, and a machine gun.

Get all the Human+ upgrades! The generator...yeah, I think I know the one you're talking about, it has higher total output than the hidden golden generator, right? I use the one from the store for that reason.

I ended up with a second [after clearing a mission and spending my whole pay and then some in ammo, that was silly but I just accepted it and got back to where I was ]. Apparently I have the blade wave, and I had no idea how I was triggering it.

And the Moonlight blade with blade wave is excessive as hell, jeeeeeez.

I dunno about the generator. I'd need to fire the game up right now to check the model. It charges pretty quick and lasts a fair bit. Delightful.

Yeah, I think the golden one has a slightly higher redline, but the store-bought one has a quicker charge. Very wonderful indeed.

[null1024]

Man, that's odd -- loaded my AC1 save into Armored Core: Master of Arena [PS1], and I could do the blade wave consistently [boost and blade]. I can't get it to come out when I want in AC1... and it does happen occasionally. Blah.

Also, MoA doesn't give a good first impression, these initial missions aren't any fun.

[Ed Oscuro]

Glad I didn't jump on MoA right away then. Still have to beat the last stretch of AC1 anyway.

A while earlier:

More of GunGage. Got to the final boss, who proceeded to juggle (apparently inescapable repeat knockdowns actually, but you get the idea) me with homing lasers. I managed to use Steyr's homing laser to effect ONE time. On the plus side of things, I've got a 2.4M highscore now, and unlocked the Stage Select. I'm missing no more than 2 flowers for any stage; 18 left total.

Who is the bright bulb who thought "Steyr" should be pronounced "Steer?" It makes somebody sound gender confused about the character.

Still loving the little musical touches in the main music and elsewhere that scream "Konami sound!"

Played Little Ralph for the first time on the real hardware - I'm noticing a bit of bowing in the horizontal lines on my set. Darn...old set had it too, though, I think.

Played Contra 3 with a friend after 20-ish years of not playing, god we sucked at it, used all 7 lives before the end of the first stage!

Ha, I had a bit of that earlier when I popped in Contra 4 after considerably less time. I wasn't dying that much, but still a few times in the first level. Woops! I blame the shit controls of the Nintendo DS.

[Schrodinger's cat]

I'm playing the old Build engine FPS Shadow Warrior, which was released for free on Steam a few days ago.

I bought it when it first came out in the late 90's but completely forgot it existed until the news of the Steam release. Haven't fired up an old FPS in a while, but I really missed how fast paced this game feels compared to modern FPS games due to lack of a recharging health mechanic, faster move speed (much faster than I remembered it), and an abundance of weapons/ammo.

The one major downside of playing this is when I've rid an entire map of enemies but still have to comb through it 20 more times to find that one key or switch that I missed somehow. Great game though.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Reached the first boss of note - Mendez - in RE4 Wii Edition and the first moody locale - the castle. Wiimote aim made the bossfight easy but I still had quite a blast. In fact, immediately after the fight I restarted and fought him again.
The castle's aura reminds me of Gothic and other such games where I can tell the devs had seen the real thing. Many American development studios could learn a thing or two from Capcom. (DMC and Haunting Ground also have that quality.)
Wondering why, what is gunning down impaired, hapless people all the way through, feels not so Nazi anymore from the castle onwards, when they are dressed up as monks and soldiers. Uniform's gotta be where it's at, which must be the reason why uniforms in real life had to be invented to begin with.
I think the cursor is updated at a higher rate than 3D (model lags behind). Nice smoke and mirrors treatment making the controls seem more responsive at a low price. (Typical of polygonal PC games with point & click interface, but on the Wii I've experienced it only in FFCCh: The Crystal Bearers before.) While I find God Hand (where the actual model responds pretty quick for a 30 fps game) more impressive in that respect, Capcom still should be lauded for addressing my needs.
A bit disappointed by the rain that looks about the same as on PS2 (where it looks worse than rain in MGS2). Then again, first game since MGS2 where I saw MGS2-nice rain was Cold Fear (Onimusha 2 doesn't quite count).

[broken harbour]

I'm playing the old Build engine FPS Shadow Warrior, which was released for free on Steam a few days ago.

I bought it when it first came out in the late 90's but completely forgot it existed until the news of the Steam release. Haven't fired up an old FPS in a while, but I really missed how fast paced this game feels compared to modern FPS games due to lack of a recharging health mechanic, faster move speed (much faster than I remembered it), and an abundance of weapons/ammo.

The one major downside of playing this is when I've rid an entire map of enemies but still have to comb through it 20 more times to find that one key or switch that I missed somehow. Great game though.

This game is way underrated. I thought it was better than Duke3D back when it was released....

[Schrodinger's cat]

This game is way underrated. I thought it was better than Duke3D back when it was released....

I thought so too! Though it seems like we're in the minority, since barely anyone talks about the game anymore. Go back to Duke 3D right after playing Shadow Warrior you can quickly tell how unrefined it was by comparison. The weapons feel much better in SW than in Duke IMO.

[Ed Oscuro]

Totally agreed with that sentiment. SW's funnier too. Lo Wang tries so hard but doesn't get any recognition, which is always funnier than Duke just having women fall over him.

[Aliquantic]

Awesomenauts on PC, thanks to the indie bundle. It's a pretty solid 3vs3 multiplayer game, though it feels a little too shallow somehow.

[EmperorIng]

I finished System Shock, and though I thought the final boss fight was a little underwhelming, everything leading up to it was extremely engaging and exciting. Easily as good as System Shock 2, which I'll have to replay soon while the experience is fresh.

On GOG.com, all Sierra adventure games are half-off (up until midnight tonight!), so I am playing a newly-picked-up Police Quest (VGA remake). I've only just started, but I am really digging it. It's easy to like Sierra adventure games' brand of humor and classy writing. The car controls really take getting used to though.

I've been wondering if I should pick up the Phantasmagoria games ($8.00 total for both), and revel in the cheesy world of FMV adventure games.

[null1024]

Gungage [PS1].
Just started playing because it looked cool.
The controls are terrible, even for a PS1 game. The bosses are a bit of fun though. Made it to the fourth stage on my first run.

Also, why do you move and turn and do everything so slowly? Except when you side dash, suddenly you move really quickly [yay] and turn way too quickly [not so yay, but it helps at times].

The music is delightful, haha.

[edit]
Unlocked Steyr, I see no reason to ever play as Wakle ever again.

although, accidentally dashing off the train in her first stage is a bitch
I outright can't play with rotate on left/right and strafe on L1/R1, but sometimes I accidentally doubletap left/right, blah. It really kills things, because she's otherwise tolerable [I like her main weapon more, her specials more, her first stage is really cool other than the fact that you can dash right off it].
I also unlocked Dee, but eh.

[edit 2]
Been playing Ghost in the Shell [PS1].
Emulation is a must if only because I can swap left/right with L1/R1, I really cannot deal with d-pad rotate and trigger strafing like was standard back then. It feels monstrously wrong, I copied a new pSX folder so I could have the pad set up just for this game.
If only it had internally remappable controls...

Damn, it's fun. The mission with the bombs started off super-intense.

also, pSX feels like having juddery visuals at times [like it's switching between the last two frames], blah
ePSXe runs the game horribly [glitchy mess], and XEBRA/ARBEX runs everything pretty poorly when it comes to framerate on the machine [although it tends to be the least glitchy].

[Obiwanshinobi]

ePSXe runs the game horribly [glitchy mess]

With ePSXe, all depends on your plugins of choice and their settings. I don't know of one setup good for all games.
More on the RE4 Wii Edition subject - I'm glad Wiimote aim didn't make the chaps of steel claws and seamy eyes too easy to defeat. They are the embodiment of everything RE4 should be all about, yet it sorely is not.
Shooting ranges are a piece of cake now, however.
Also, Wii Edition makes the QTE most dreaded back in the day less of a chore. I might just play through Professional to see if I can be bothered shaking off the game's toughest boss.

[Moniker]

Got Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition (PC), so I've been getting back into it.

My 360 pyromancer got stuck at Rosencrantz & Guildenstern, and I didn't really like pyromancies so much, so decided to go for a cleric. I'm starting to see how lvl1 runs are possible, although I'm not running one myself. Twohanding a drake sword with minimal armor totally works if you keep sharp enough. I took enough levels to wield a bow and drake sword, and it really isn't any more difficult than I remember my grinded-up pyromancer being. Yay.

[null1024]

Ideally, I'd use no$PS1, which seems to work rather well and keep a rather steady framerate [ePSXe's CPU core is awfully slow on that machine, so heavier plugins would be pointless because the framerate would be too low]... but no$PS1 dies horribly at random for no apparent reason, although it is clearly in development [ie, unfinished].

This reminds me that I really need a new laptop. With a recent i5 machine [or equivalent AMD], I could probably just run everything in XEBRA and enjoy it's rather high compatibility with no framerate issues. Or hell, I could probably have the framebuffer settings in ePSXe's hardware rendering as high as they go, which would fix a lot of problems [ePSXe still has a fair bit of problems, and plugins really aren't the answer -- I don't really care about making the games look too much better, I want them to run, and it's underlying emulation isn't exactly great, unrelated to what ePSXe has dealt out to plugin-based handling, eg, graphics rendering and sound eulation].



Son of a bitch, there is no reason you should be able to dash off the train in Gungage. Hell, the front dash doesn't even do that.
At least it's Steyr's first level, and pretty easy otherwise. If it was a later level, I'd be pissed [and I really would be with since other characters do that level later, but fuck every other character].

[KAI]

Playing Ridge Racers 2, Wangan Midnight Portable, Initial-D Street Stage and GTI Club City on PPSSPP.

Time to post some RR2 times on Rolling-Start.

[null1024]

Time to post some RR2 times on Rolling-Start.

Duly noted, also playing Ridge Racer 2 [PSP].
Why the hell this game doesn't seem to have a way to easily check your best time was [other than to enter a race] I will never understand.

Also, I should look into getting that Initial D game for the PSP.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Hum, could one use a knife in Assignment Ada of RE4 on the PS2? For some reason I thought it was the lack of knife that made the final boss battle so tricky (he's prety defenseless against Leon's knife in the main game, at least in PAL version where weapons are rebalanced and the knife - twice as powerful, apparently).
Yet on the Wii (PAL version too) she can use a knife, so maybe I mistook my memories of Assignment Ada for the surprise some characters in The Mercenaries came as (namely the knifeless Wesker and H.U.N.K.).

[SA-DaleCooper]

Just got Mr Driller 2 and i'm playing the crap out of it, also SSF4 AE 2012 tournaments every friday with the homies

[Obiwanshinobi]

Done with Assignment Ada (didn't even try to cut the boss with the knife). Easier than I remembered, but unsurprisingly Wiimote made aiming at legs of shielded guys easy. Rather surprisingly, though, riffle aiming with the stick was more bothersome than in my memories of the PS2 version. Either it's laggier on 'Cube/Wii (other traits indicate so, but it's a broader topic), or the downgrade after Wiimote aim makes me feel this way.

[No_not_like_Quake]

Currently Shining in the Darkness. I like it but find it a bit tedious. Not much currently as far as modern games have my interest, getting the Luigi expansion for NSMBU and perhaps a few 3DS game and that's pretty much it till August.

[EmperorIng]

Myself I'm trying out GunGriffon for the Saturn. So far I'm really digging the fast-paced action, even if the graphics are a little primitive.

Is MechWarrior 2 on the Saturn any good?

[Marc]

Mr Driller on 360. I'm sure the 100m is a lot harder here than on the DC version, thus is only giving me 20 air per capsule, sure it was 30 on DC? It basically means that if you pass one, you've very little time to fuck around trying to get it back. Conversely, the more spread out capsules on the 3000m course make it easier, as there's a lot less messing around chasing after stuff you missed or came after from a bad position. Completed the 1000m and made it halfway down the 3000m, should finish that in next session or two. Didn't realise that it gave you items until an hour after I'd started playing either. Classic game, and this is a pretty good version.

Where is PaCrappa when I want to talk Mr Driller?

[broken harbour]

Uncharted 3 on PS3, good game, really fun. A bit easier than previous installments so far.... about 5 hours in....

RayTracers on PS1, what a seriously weird yet fun game....

Warhawk on PS1, geeez this game is dated, I remember being blown away by it in 1995... FMV sequences are funny.

[Hagane]

Never finished the extra dungeons and I got the urge to replay the game, so I picked Order of Ecclesia up again.

Still consider it by far and away the best post Rondo of Blood Castlevania. It's not arcade hard, but it's decently challenging. The levels are short and well designed, so things are always interesting and you don't have to constantly avoid enemies to not end up over-leveled and trivializing the game. There's even some relevant platforming! It fixes a lot of what I detest about modern Castlevanias, even if it still retains a bit of the clutter and filler of them. I'd love to see a Castlevania that perfectly mixes the challenging, streamlined, well designed platforming of the older games with the expanded movement options and combat of the modern ones. With Konami focused on third rate clones of third rate 3D brawlers this is the closest it gets to that ideal, I guess.

Presentation is also superb. Excellent spritework, the best music since the classic games, amazing character design and art by Masaaki Hirooka... and Shanoa is a welcome change of pace from the bishies of late. One of the few instances where the US voice actors are better than the JP ones, too (except for the townspeople who are mostly awful). I guess that the emotionless JP voice for Shanoa makes more sense story-wise, but I much prefer the stronger US actress. Albus and Barlowe are leagues better too.

With some practice managed to clear the large cavern. The World for more magic, Diamond ring to deal more damage to the dark aligned enemies with Vol Luminatio, and Globus + Volaticus for (mostly) safely killing those annoying knights. For the boss, I just lead the homing balls to the lower edges of the screen to free space, then move to the opposite edge and repeat. The boss itself and the minions aren't that annoying; as long as you don't get hit by a light ball (deals around 400 damage to me, at level 37) you can hit him with Vol Luminatio for a relatively quick kill.

The training area is more challenging, and very nicely designed. The game should have used Magnes more in the main game. I'm currently stuck on the room with the two automatons. They probably are key for progressing, but I can't figure out what I have to do yet. I'll probably replay the whole game after I finish it. It deserves it.

[EmperorIng]

Never finished the extra dungeons and I got the urge to replay the game, so I picked Order of Ecclesia up again.

Still consider it by far and away the best post Rondo of Blood Castlevania. It's not arcade hard, but it's decently challenging. The levels are short and well designed, so things are always interesting and you don't have to constantly avoid enemies to not end up over-leveled and trivializing the game. There's even some relevant platforming! It fixes a lot of what I detest about modern Castlevanias, even if it still retains a bit of the clutter and filler of them. I'd love to see a Castlevania that perfectly mixes the challenging, streamlined, well designed platforming of the older games with the expanded movement options and combat of the modern ones. With Konami focused on third rate clones of third rate 3D brawlers this is the closest it gets to that ideal, I guess.

Presentation is also superb. Excellent spritework, the best music since the classic games, amazing character design and art by Masaaki Hirooka... and Shanoa is a welcome change of pace from the bishies of late. One of the few instances where the US voice actors are better than the JP ones, too (except for the townspeople who are mostly awful). I guess that the emotionless JP voice for Shanoa makes more sense story-wise, but I much prefer the stronger US actress. Albus and Barlowe are leagues better too.

With some practice managed to clear the large cavern. The World for more magic, Diamond ring to deal more damage to the dark aligned enemies with Vol Luminatio, and Globus + Volaticus for (mostly) safely killing those annoying knights. For the boss, I just lead the homing balls to the lower edges of the screen to free space, then move to the opposite edge and repeat. The boss itself and the minions aren't that annoying; as long as you don't get hit by a light ball (deals around 400 damage to me, at level 37) you can hit him with Vol Luminatio for a relatively quick kill.

The training area is more challenging, and very nicely designed. The game should have used Magnes more in the main game. I'm currently stuck on the room with the two automatons. They probably are key for progressing, but I can't figure out what I have to do yet. I'll probably replay the whole game after I finish it. It deserves it.

Order of Ecclesia is a gem; it's surprising that they could pull off such a great game after the mediocre Portrait of Ruin. The New Game + modes are fun to dick around and speed-run through.

[system11]

I just finished Remember Me. Camera was slightly annoying in fights until the end, but the story and presentation are fantastic and well worth the entry price. Surprising a new team can come up with something like this as their first game, there are a few scenes and things you do which will make you think about the implications later. One of the early actions you take never sat well with me. It was also a game where I didn't feel like rushing. I ran in areas where it seemed like the character would run. I walked where I felt she would just walk - this wasn't a conscious decision, it just happened that way because the game world and character were convincing.

I don't suppose we'll see a sequel, definitely a flawed gem but I'll be watching Dontnod with interest to see what they come up with next.